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Wong, G., & Sakulneya, A. (2004). Promoting EAL nursing students' mastery of informal language. Nursing Praxis in New Zealand, 20(1), 45–52.
Abstract: This article describes the development, delivery and evaluation of a pilot programme designed to help nursing and midwifery students from Asian and non-English speaking backgrounds improve their conversational skills in practice settings. Many such students, although previously assessed as competent in English, find that communication with patients and their families, and other health professionals is difficult. The study was conducted in a large tertiary educational institution in a major metropolitan centre. Each week for a period of 11 weeks students participated in an interactive session. Content for these was based on areas highlighted by a needs assessment involving interviews with both students and lecturers, and was subject to ongoing modification in response to feedback from participants. Evaluation questionnaires completed at the conclusion of the series indicated that students perceived the impact as positive. Students who attended regularly and were actively involved in the practice activities described gains in communication skills. From this it was concluded that further development of the pilot scheme was warranted in order to benefit English as an additional language (EAL) students enrolled in nursing and midwifery courses
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Wong, G., Fishman, Z., McRobbie, H., Arroll, B., Clair, S., Freeman, B., et al. (2007). Smoking and nurses in New Zealand: ASH-KAN Aotearoa: Assessment of smoking history, knowledge and attitudes of nurses in New Zealand. Auckland: ASH New Zealand.
Abstract: Because nurses work in a wide range of settings they are well-placed to provide support for smokefree environments. The aim of this research was: to assess the knowledge of cessation, attitudes towards smoking, the provision of smoking cessation advice and treatment, and attitudes to and management of smokefree workplaces in a sample of nurses with practising certificates in New Zealand; and to describe the prevalence of smoking in nurses using the 2006 New Zealand census. One thousand questionnaires were posted to a random sample of 1000 nurses (500 community-based nurses, and 500 hospital-based) from the New Zealand Nursing Council register of nurses with current practising certificates. Statistics New Zealand provided results from the New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings, 2006, for nurses by gender, practice area and cigarette smoking status. Responses were received from 371 (37%) of the nurses. They were enthusiastic about and committed to including smoking cessation in their practice, and to learning more about helping clients who smoke. Nine out of ten felt that it was part of their responsibility to advise clients to stop smoking. Nearly nine out of ten said they would be happy to spend an extra five minutes with each patient who smoked if they could effectively intervene. Over half had not received training for effective evidence-based smoking cessation interventions but three quarters were interested in learning more about how to help people stop smoking. The respondents' knowledge of the health effects of smoking was high, but there were gaps in knowledge of effective smoking treatments and a wide misunderstanding that nicotine causes cancer and heart disease. These gaps may limit nurses' ability to intervene effectively. Nurses supported their smokefree work policies although a fifth did not report support with enforcing these. Results from the 2006 census showed that smoking prevalence among nurses has declined from 18% in 1996 to 14% in 2006. Smoking rates in mental health nurses (29%) remain higher than the New Zealand general population (21%, census data).
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